


but the sun is still in the sky

by strangesmallbard



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017), The Worst Witch - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Magical Artifacts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 11:19:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14135007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangesmallbard/pseuds/strangesmallbard
Summary: Julie slams a drawer shut. “We already tried summoning them, didn’t we? I don’t suppose you have an X-Ray Vision Potion on hand.”She hears a scoff. “Those could not existless.”Julie turns with an all-around lazy glare. She crosses her arms, to emphasize how mad she is. “You could help, darling."**Hecate and Julie try to find a missing item in the school's basement, and end up talking (and bickering) about a few important things.





	but the sun is still in the sky

**Author's Note:**

> sometimes you have writer's block on your multichap, so you try and freewrite something else and it ends up being nearly 3k words and? publishable? 
> 
> anyway! how about that awesome finale! so many arcs got great conclusions! and julie hubble is like, literally the best. i hope i did her point of view justice in this piece. it's ostensibly in the same universe as "try once more," but you don't need to read that one first! i think there's only one, tiny reference in this one. timeline wise, this takes place a little ways in the future.
> 
> title is also from "chiquitita" by abba, since it's in that same universe.

Are _all_ Witches simply allergic to keeping easily accessible medical records?

Julie may be decent with a spreadsheet for someone who’s only had Google half their life, but there is only so much she can do when the Infirmary check-in records for the years 2016 through 2017 simply _disappear_ from the office. In front of her eyes.

“Oh dear,” Ada had said, adjusting her specs. “Yes, that can happen. The castle has a mind of its own sometimes. Ah well!”

“Ah. Well!” Julie said, and gave a smile that desperately tried not to explode into a frustrated rage.

She is _not_ going to fight a castle.

Ada patted her arm. “You might check the cellar. We tend to vanish copies there at the end of each term. We do really mean to go through them too, but other...events tend to take precedence.”

Julie grimaced, sympathetically. “Of course.”

The cellar. The cellar of a castle with a mind of its own. Where all the odds and ends of magic itself just sort of end up in one chaotic cluster. Now, she can do chaos. She works emergency on Friday nights. She is personally responsible for the survival of at least eighteen Uni students back from when she used to engage in a little bit of chaos herself.

Still. Asking Hecate to join her has made the ordeal terribly comfortable.

“There are much less tedious ways to find these...forms.”

And there’s that.

Julie slams a drawer shut. “We already tried summoning them, didn’t we? I don’t suppose you have an X-Ray Vision Potion on hand.”

She hears a scoff. “Those could not exist _less_.”

Julie turns with an all-around lazy glare. She crosses her arms, to emphasize how mad she is. “You could help, darling.”

Hecate, still standing in the center of the room, twists one hand over the other. She clears her throat. “Well, I am certainly trying.”

Julie points across the room, where she hasn’t begun looking yet. “Is searching the cabinets yourself against the Code?”

Hecate’s brow startles up. “You know very well that it’s not.”

 _“Very_ well, huh?” Julie says, hands on her hips. Her glare careens up into a decidedly impish smile. “Then get to work, Miss Hardbroom, and we can still have our lunch date.”

Hecate tries to keep the lines on her face harsh and stalwart, but a small smile pulls upwards the longer they look each other, like the sun coming out in well. A cellar. She has no right looking that attractive in a _cellar_ , surrounded by dust and cobwebs and ancient storage containers that don’t have her missing forms. A sharp figure standing proud in the dark, delicate wisps of fallen hair tucked behind her ears. That thing her mouth does when she’s trying not to smile.

(If Julie _ever_ gets her hands on the person who told her not to smile when she wants to, made her so wary of any given affection–)

Hecate tilts her head to the side, the rest of her to follow. She sighs, smile dropping. “If you’re not absolutely opposed to magic, I _can_ move this process along by summoning every drawer containing paper.”

Julie only barely withholds an eye roll. She takes a step towards her. “Magic is the reason why we’re _here_ instead of having a cuddle on my couch.”

Hecate flushes again, and seems to be warring with herself; to flirt with your girlfriend in a musty cellar or to defend the virtues of Witchcraft? That is the question. “How presumptuous,” she says, cool and smooth as a skipping stone. “That we’d forgo one of Miss Tapioca’s delightful meals.”

Julie steps close enough that she has to look up to meet her eyes. How irritating. She reaches up to smooth out her dress collar and watches her eyes go warm, warm. Knows her own must be going the same. How not so irritating. She hums. “You’re right. I don’t know how I could possibly live without some chicken stew, or…”

Hecate feigns an expert false disinterest. “...Or?”

She reaches up to needlessly tuck hair behind her ear. Her palm brushes Hecate’s jaw, and she tilts her head imperceptibly closer.  “Those infirmary check-in records,” she says, voice low. Hecate blinks a few times, owlish, and gives Julie probably the closest Hecate Hardbroom will ever come to a true, bonafide pout.

“Hmm,” she says, extricating her hand. She continues to hold it. Just for a moment. Her hands are cool, not cold. “I actually prefer the boiled potatoes.”

“And I prefer you,” Julie says, and pecks her cheek. “Preferably away from the cobwebs, even though they do match your outfit.”

Hecate clears her throat no less than three times. Her hand comes up to straighten out the collar Julie already fixed, brush invisible dust off her shoulder. “I do,” she begins, and shakes her head. “It has been a while since...we’ve,” she flicks a hand around the room. “The cobwebs certainly add a certain ambiance.”

Julie nudges her head over to the cabinets. “They’re _certainly_ making me sneeze. Come on, there’s only a few more drawers to get through. Let’s work our way from opposite ends.”

Hecate stares at her hands for a moment before giving a slightly pained nod. She walks to the other end of the cabinet and pulls out a drawer, pulling out a few orange crystals. She blows on them, and dust flies off. She stares at them, affronted. “I lost these an entire decade ago.”

Julie opens her own drawer to reveal a whole lot of blank parchment. She doesn’t need parchment, but takes it out anyway. It’s rather fancy. “See! Not a pointless search after all.”

“I never said it was pointless,” Hecate says, the edges of warm. “I only…”

She falls quiet.

When she doesn’t speak again, Julie puts the parchment back. She watches her consider the crystals, the low yellow light in the cellar making the old things look rather pretty. Mildred brought home a set of crystals last summer, a gift from Enid. She set them all about the house and chattered away about each of their properties, about the spells they were to meant to enhance. She put one in Julie’s room too. _For protection, Mum_. She smiled. _I put a Heating Spell on them too. I know it gets really drafty in here._

_That’s because your mum is silly and leaves the window open all night._

The crystals sent yellow and pink all across Julie’s floor. _Now you can have both, Mum. You can be warm and chilly at the same time! Cool, right?_

And oh, magic isn’t always a destructive, nebulous force of chaos. Sometimes. Sometimes it’s–

“You’re right, by the way,” Julie says, quietly.

Hecate looks up. “About what?”

She leans against the cabinet. “It has been far too long since we’ve seen each other.”

Hecate opens her mouth and closes it immediately, and Julie really didn’t used to believe that _the eyes say all_ nonsense. Now eyes speak a hesitant affection, like saying anything at all could unravel the whole conversation into something unmanageable. Julie lets her go with a nod and a smile, and returns to her work. The next drawer over has a rather incredible array of candles and decidedly no papers. Wait! There are papers right underneath– No, no, more blank parchment.

She takes out a candle and frowns at it. “By the way, Millie’s been asking when you’ll come over for dinner again.”

Hecate pushes a drawer back in. Julie can’t tell if she looks amused or surprised. “I would have thought she’d be enjoying a term break free of me.”

Julie laughs, warmly. “Hardly, Miss Hardbroom. She’s excited to show you her summer project, but that’s not all. I believe we haven’t watched the _Star Wars_ prequels yet?”

Fondness overwhelms amusement, but not surprise, and she considers the orange crystals again. “No...I don’t believe we have. Do those involve…” Her forehead scrunches up. “ _Leia’s_ mother?”

“The very ones!” Julie sighs at yet more parchment paper. “You know, the first time she came home from school, she practiced Levitation Spells on her old toy lightsaber. Successfully, I might add.” She eyes Hecate and tucks the parchment paper back under the candles. “Weren’t you two having a debate on whether magic and the Force are similar?”

Hecate sighs. “I...acquiesce to their similarity in discipline, but one is still incredibly…fictional. _”_ She vanishes away the crystals. “And in _outer space_ ,” she adds, wryly.

Julie watches her again. There’s very little tension in her shoulders. “She’s very happy that you enjoy the films too,” she says, softly.

The surprise vanishes, and Hecate opens the next drawer. “Her Levitation Spells have gotten very strong as of late. I’m certain she’d be able to add a Sounding Charm for that,” she waves her hand, “ridiculous _sound_ those things have. Tell her,” she looks back at Julie with a smile. “Tell Mildred I’d be very glad to join you both for dinner again. Star… _Wars_ as well.”

And there’s that.

“Next Friday,” she says, quiet and a bit scratchy. “We have that Staff Meeting in the morning, and Millie comes home from Maud’s house the day before.”

Hecate stares at her, bewildered in ways Julie is starting to know, and she nods, once.

Julie reaches for another drawer. “You know, I just bought a new box of popcorn. I know that’s your favo–” The drawer catches on something, halfway out. She reaches a hand in to see if it’s a strange crystal, and it’s strangely, incredibly empty. “Hey!” she mutters, and tugs again.

She hears a mild, half-hearted scoff. “Popped corn is merely– Are you alright, Julie?”

Julie tugs again, and reaches along the crevices between the drawers on the right and then the left, and still, absolutely nothing. She looks behind her and Hecate has gone from teasing to incredibly concerned. “It’s just–Ugh! It’s stuck! For no good reason!” She glares at the cabinet. “Give me my records!”

Hecate carefully steps away. She lifts a hand, a question. “I believe I spoke earlier of a _faster..._ process?”

(Sometimes, magic, sometimes it’s–)

Julie raises a brow. “Alright, alright,” she says. She steps back, and gestures. “Try it out.”

Hecate nods with a ghost of a smile, and re-tenses her shoulders. She twists her hand, and all of the drawers shoot forward simultaneously. The stuck one stops halfway out, straining against whatever has deemed itself stronger than magic. She scowls and curls her hand into a fist. The drawer strains again, twisting upwards and downwards and it even starts to glow green with the effort.

Julie has to stifle a laugh. “Hecate, it’s–”

“This is impossible,"Hecate near growls. “This Spell is able to move _stone_.” She stalks towards the drawer, hands hovering and curling inward. The green glows stronger and brighter and the drawer doesn’t move another inch. She looks incredulously at her own hands and hovers them again, almost touching the drawer. This time, it scoots _backwards_ , like it’s hiding from them. Really growling, Hecate shakes her head, grabs the handle herself, and tugs.

Before Julie can warn her about dislocating a shoulder, the drawer shoots forward and tumbles Hecate right into her arms. They both stumble back, Hecate haphazardly reaching for Julie’s waist and shoulder to stay upright. The drawer, perhaps angry at being disturbed–Julie won’t underestimate magic for a moment–shoots right out of the cabinet, aimed directly for their heads.

Julie tugs them away, but Hecate regains her footing in time to lift a firm hand and stop the drawer right in its tracks. It hovers, and Julie may be losing it, but the ends of the handle are starting to look like eyes and they’re starting to glare back.

 _“Shoo,”_ Hecate says, slow and dangerous.

The drawer juts forward again, clipping Hecate in the nose and crashing her back against Julie once more. This time, she catches her around the waist and doesn’t let go.

Hecate holds her nose and glares back. She tries to be menacing again, and it all just comes out nasally. “I have survived the destruction of this school far too many times to be done in by a piece of mangled furniture.”

A giggle threatens to break free, which won’t do at all. She covers with a stern glare of her own, and raises a finger at the offending drawer. “Go on! Get! You have a job to do, and so do we!”

The drawer definitely cannot be looking at her, but it turns the handle towards the new voice regardless. Julie gives in to the madness and maintains er, eye contact. She feels Hecate take a deep, frustrated breath, and she twists her hand up again, sending a silver spark towards the drawer. It doesn’t budge.

It gives Julie one more glance _(God),_ and seems to _nod._ Then, finally, it flies backwards and tucks itself back into the cabinet.

Hecate sags against her, just for a moment. Julie lets her arms sag too, so Hecate can leave if she wants. She stays put, just looking at the cabinet, reaching up to lightly rest a hand over Julie’s arm. “I have long suggested to Ada that we take the time to clear out any _lingering_ spellwork in this room.”

Julie tucks her chin on Hecate’s shoulder. “Don’t blame the room because you couldn’t properly scare a cabinet drawer,” she murmurs.

Hecate sighs, sharply. “I could have smashed the entire things into _smithereens_ if I cared to.”

Julie taps Hecate's arm. “Let me see your nose.”

Hecate turns around, and Julie catches her chin, gently turning her head right and left to check for any swelling or bruising. It looks a little bit red, and she smiles. “Oh, it got you bad.”

Her lips twitch up. “Is that your medical opinion, Nurse Hubble?”

She nods. “Yep! And since you’ve been so _terribly_ injured, I’m afraid those missing records will just have to wait another day.”

Hecate’s face settles into something soft, something a bit wry. “Are you certain? I know that– I know that you need to...You simply want to perform your duties well. We will find them, I promise.” She frowns. “I can certainly enhance the Summoning Spell.”

“You’re very sweet,” Julie says, and reaches up to gently tuck actual escaped hair behind her ear. Her hand settles at the base of Hecate’s neck. “Has anyone ever told you that?”

Hecate’s lips twitch up again, brow furrowing. “That is...not quite a favored adjective, no.”

Julie tilts her head. Her own uncertainties seem to catch. It's new, she knows, all of this. For both of them. There's a life they both more than accepted a long time ago, and there's this spark of something warm and lovely and not easy, no, but that was never Julie’s trouble before, and is far from trouble now. Quite the opposite.

If the Julie Hubble from Parent’s Night several years ago could see her–well, it’s not that she’s ever been wary of change either, and this is the expected and unexpected all whirling together into something almost delicate.

Oddly enough. Just like those cobwebs.

“You are,” she says, smiling. “When you want to be.”

She watches her brow smooth out and there go her eyes again. Like a very cozy fire on a very cold day. Or, well, a very cold cellar.

She starts to reach for Julie, and then hesitates, tucks the arm back against her side, curls a hand. “We should most likely leave.” She lets out an odd snort that no one would ever believe, and looks back at the cabinet. “Before the furniture retaliates and doubles their efforts.”

Julie gives a mock grimace. “Oh, darn. We gave it right back to its friends, and now they're going to steal _all_ of my medical records this time.”

Hecate looks at her a moment, face full of considering, and then offers a hand, unfurled. Julie takes it, smiling again, and Hecate gently folds their hands together. “Before the first strike,” she near murmurs, and lifts her other hand. “Are you settled?”

Julie nods, steeling herself against a transfer. As they leap through a void, Hecate runs a thumb across her palm.

When they reappear in the Infirmary, just beside her desk, she doesn't let go either. Not right away. Not before Julie notices that her Infirmary check-in records have reappeared exactly where she last saw them. Right down to a page corner sticking out of the pile.

_Magic. Castles._

She picks them up, inspecting them for any damage, and of course there’s none, of course they’re absolutely fine and not in a cellar. She shakes the first paper at the stone walls, the high stained glass windows. “Are you kidding me!”

Beside her, Hecate smiles, the one that changes her whole face and leaves Julie more than a little breathless and she _laughs_ , shoulders curving with the effort. No, _cackles._

Julie grumbles, warm, warm. She points a finger. “I'm taking the last serving of chicken stew, and you can't stop me.”

Hecate reaches for her other hand, brings it up to her lips. Drops a kiss. Genuinely stunned, Julie can only watch her smirk and say, “How about a...oh, what's the word I'm looking for...a _race?”_

She disappears.

Julie blinks. She stares at the spot Hecate vacated. She shakes the papers again, and grins, despite herself. “You're on!”


End file.
